Officials in Caribbean and New Orleans brace for tropical storms
( 2002-09-25 17:36 ) (7 )

A pair of tropical storms threatened the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, unleashing a string of deadly mudslides, drenching rains and fierce winds.

Forecasters said Tropical Storm Lili was weakening over the eastern Caribbean, and may be downgraded to a tropical depression later Wednesday with watches discontinued.

Lili unleashed a mudslide that buried a woman and three of her children in the Caribbean Tuesday, while Tropical Storm Isidore left two dead and 300,000 homeless in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.

The two storms ripped roofs from homes and uprooted trees across wide swaths of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

In the eastern Caribbean country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, mud broke away from a rain-soaked hillside and slammed into the bedroom of 27-year-old Charmine Toney about 7 a.m. (1100 GMT), relatives said.

"I called Charmine, Charmine," said neighbor Nicole Nickie. Toney and three of her children were crushed when the mudslide toppled a concrete wall. Toney's 2-year-old daughter survived and went for help.

In parts of the Yucatan on Tuesday, residents shoveled mud out of their homes and slogged through flooded fields. State authorities restored phone service and electricity and trucked in drinking water and dry clothes to outlying coastal areas that Isidore had cut off from the outside world.

Archaeologists conducted emergency inspections of hundreds of Mayan ruins and found no damage.

"We've received radio reports from (the Mayan cities of) Chichen Itza and Uxmal, and there was no damage beyond some trees blown down," said Carlos Macedonio of the Yucatan state archaeology.

At the 1,700-year-old Oxkintok ruins, guard Francisco Sanchez said the pyramid and surrounding site had withstood the storm. "They were already ruins," he joked.

But many modern structures didn't hold up as well as the Mayan ruins. Homes with cinderblock walls and sheet-metal roofs were ripped open like tin cans and driving wind crumpled billboards and metal signposts like pieces of aluminum foil.

At least two people were killed in the Yucatan, including a security guard who was electrocuted because of flooding at the airport. An 8-year-old boy was swept away by a swollen river in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas. Parts of northern Central America also were flooded.

Hurricane Isidore was downgraded to a tropical storm earlier Tuesday and by evening had sustained winds of 60 mph (96 kph).

But it is expected to regain hurricane strength of 74 mph (119 kph) as it heads for vulnerable U.S. coastal towns.

At 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) Wednesday, Isidore was 355 miles (570 kilometers) south of the Louisiana coast and moving north at 10 mph (16 kph). A hurricane watch was posted for the northern Gulf coast from Cameron, Louisiana, to Pascagoula, Mexico.

Isidore was expected to dump 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain over the southeastern United States over the next several days, raising concerns about potentially life-threatening flooding, forecasters said.

On Tuesday, Cajun fishing towns cleared out, naval ships steamed out for the open sea and residents began evacuating to hotels as forecasters issued a hurricane watch for the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.

Lili was moving west at 10 mph (16 kph) and expected to make a gradual turn toward the west-northwest.

Lili was about 335 miles (540 kilometers) south-southeast of Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, early Wednesday.

Haiti's southern coast was under tropical storm watch. The Dominican Republic, which shares Hispaniola island with Haiti, posted a coastal watch from Punta Palenque westward.

Lili was expected to make landfall in southern Haiti late Wednesday or early Thursday. Eastern Cuba is next on the path forecast by the U.S. National Hurricane Center ( news - web sites) in Miami, expecting a hit Friday.

At Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in eastern Cuba, U.S. officials said that if necessary they could move 598 Taliban and al-Qaida suspects from their prison camp to another unspecified location nearby.

Lili reached the southeast Caribbean as a tropical depression Monday and quickly strengthened, damaging at least 139 homes in Barbados with winds of 60 mph (96 kph).

In St. Vincent, Lili damaged at least 42 houses, two schools and a police station.

After the mudslide near the eastern village of Colonarie, Toney's youngest daughter, 2-year-old Narissa, went calling for help.

Toney's sister, Monica Dorsette, said Narissa had been sleeping in the same bedroom but survived because the mudslide's force threw her under a bed.

Neighbors helped rescue Toney's boyfriend, Norris Simmons, from the mud, and he was being treated at a clinic. The three children who died were girls Mishka, 9, and Jenille, 6, and a boy, 3-week-old Norris.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Kyle was over the open Atlantic, east-southeast of Bermuda. It had sustained winds near 65 mph (100 kph) and also is forecast to reach hurricane strength Wednesday, but it posed no threat to land.